as in brutality
the manifestation of the traits or the gratification of the appetites of a lower animal
in his portrayal the actor emphasizes the working-class hunk's fundamental animality
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of animality
This strangeness causes all sorts of internal agitation, an uneasiness about humanity’s closeness to animality.
—
Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025
But also, something more intrinsic — something like her animality.
—Camille Bromley Gabra Zackman Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2025
The other characters are getting animalities, as well: Peacemaker gets the eagle, Omni-Man the Hail Mary kaiju from Invincible, and Johnny Cage becomes a shark.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 23 Sep. 2024
Meg combined elements of Christie Monteiro, with Bryans Snakeskin Pants (both from Tekken), while dancing in a DDR setting similarly to Ulala from Space Channel 5, fatalities and animalities from MK, with nods to old school games from the Sega Genesis era.
—Solcyré Burga, TIME, 10 May 2024
Kafka’s fiction is full of animals who resemble people and people who lapse into animality.
—Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2023
The study ventures into the intricacies of scientific and quasi-scientific debates in the 19th century, and treats 19th century science as embedded in a myth featuring divinity, humanity and animality as principal characters.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 31 July 2012
Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025
But also, something more intrinsic — something like her animality.
—Camille Bromley Gabra Zackman Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2025
The other characters are getting animalities, as well: Peacemaker gets the eagle, Omni-Man the Hail Mary kaiju from Invincible, and Johnny Cage becomes a shark.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 23 Sep. 2024
Meg combined elements of Christie Monteiro, with Bryans Snakeskin Pants (both from Tekken), while dancing in a DDR setting similarly to Ulala from Space Channel 5, fatalities and animalities from MK, with nods to old school games from the Sega Genesis era.
—Solcyré Burga, TIME, 10 May 2024
Kafka’s fiction is full of animals who resemble people and people who lapse into animality.
—Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2023
The study ventures into the intricacies of scientific and quasi-scientific debates in the 19th century, and treats 19th century science as embedded in a myth featuring divinity, humanity and animality as principal characters.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 31 July 2012
Recent Examples of Synonyms for animality
Noun
-
Leone’s creation has gained a substantial cult following thanks to its throwback grindhouse aesthetics, nauseating practical effects, and unapologetic brutality.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Oct. 2025
-
Despite a complete media and communications blackout, making specifics hard to determine, videos trickled out of El Fasher showing the brutality being unleashed on the civilian population.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Hope is something that Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri can related to, having explored the dualities of hope and despair (as well as lightness and darkness, and fluidity and animalism) in her spring 2023 collection.—
Rosemary Feitelberg,
WWD,
22 Jan. 2025
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All of a sudden, that animalism has been incarnated.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
25 Mar. 2024
Noun
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Being tied to the mast of a regime defined by cruelty and graft is a problem of another magnitude entirely.—
Dónal Gill,
The Dial,
28 Oct. 2025
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After shifting power to the people—like a year-plus bus boycott can do, for example—and getting the government to lessen its corruption, cruelty, injustice or violence, defending those gains is a must.—
Michael Shank,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Animality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animality. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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